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Study of chromosomal aberrations in Myelodysplastic syndrome in an Asian population

Author

Cheah, Grace Yee May

Date of Issue

2015

School

School of Biological Sciences

Related Organization

Cytogenetics Laboratory, Singapore General Hospital

Abstract

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are bone marrow disorders diagnosed predominantly in the elderly. Past studies on MDS patients in Asian and Western countries have exhibited differences in the characteristics of patients between these two populations. In this study, the types of chromosomal aberrations (CA) present in MDS patients in Singapore were investigated and subsequently compared to previous findings of Asian and Western patients. The prognoses of these patients were also determined to predict their survival and rate of progression to acute myeloid leukaemia. A retrospective analysis was carried out on 340 patients diagnosed with MDS by conventional cytogenetics (CC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) between 2010 and 2014. The majority of these patients were found to have complex karyotypes of more than three aberrations, which is a common occurrence in Asian countries but not in the Western population. However, the median age of the patients were found to be closer to that of the Western population instead. These suggest that genetic and environmental factors may play a role in causing such differences between Asian and Western populations. Additionally, locus-specific FISH uncovered abnormalities missed by CC, suggesting that it is a good adjunct diagnostic test to CC in identifying subtle CA.